Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-12-05
LON,PRICED BEEF.
THE TREMENDOUS DEPRECIATION
IN THE PRICE OF CATTLE.
Its Causes and Effects-Fall of the Cat.
tie kiDgs-A Drop Of Over 75 Per
Cent. In Two Years.

was printed the fol
lowing outline of the condition of the
cattle growing industry:
The cattle business in the West is
at its worst ri ght now, and the cattle
men are possessed of lower spirits
than they have ever been since stock.
raising on the plains became an al
Turing investment for capitalists This
year has plunged into great distress
most of the small stock owners and
great many of the larger ones.
Cattle losses have been heavy through
bad weather and the overcrowding Of
the ranges, stock has greatly de-
preclated in value, and the banks are
pressing the rangemen for the money
they owe. Most of them are in debt,
and a great many owe more than their
herds are worth and are hopeless of
payment, yet their notes are overdue
and their creditors demand money.
10 raise it their cattle must be sold,
even at the ruinous prices which are
being paid In the open market now.
So the cattlemen are shipping into
the stockyards all the stock on their
ranges for the purpose of raising
ready money not only the beef steers.
but the cows and young calves are
being sacrificed, and their owners do
not recover enough money from the
sales to pay their debts, even though
they have destroyed their range herds
and brought themselves to utter pow
erty. The butchers, who are buying
meat on the hoof for almost nothing,
are making money, and the producers
are getting poor. All stockmen are
deeply concerned with the situation,
and among them it is generally proph-
esied that the coming year and the
two years following will be ones of
high prices for beef because of a
scanty supply.
THE OVERCROWDED MARKET,
At the National Stock Yards in
East St. Louis it has been noticed all
through the year that cattle were be-
ing put on the market in extraordi-
nary quantities, even at the remark
ably low prices they could be sold for,
and that this stock was being shipped
in without regard to its quality at
beef. Up to the fall of last year is
had been the rule among stocllmen to
ship no cattle to market younger than
1 year-old crib steers. Last fall IA
few cows and calves were sent to the
stock yards and sold, aud even then
the stockmen who were doing it were
severely criticised. The explanation
then generally given was that the
ranges were ovcrcrowded, and that
the owners wanted to get rid of the
cattle. Earl y this year the stockmen
began to ship yearlings, cows and
calves into the yards in such large
numbers that 1t became evident there
must be some other cause for their
desire to clear off the ranges. There
was another explanation, and this was
debt. According to the books of the
stock yards company there were in
1886 no less than $4,000 cattle
shipped to the East St. Louis Stock
Yards and sold there. These were
mostly beef cattle. For the 10 past
months of this year there have been
10000 more cattle shipped to the
yards than there were in the whole of
last year. OF these the cattle in
spectors stationed at the yards say
fully ne-half have been cattle that
should not have been put on the mar
ket, and would not have been shipped
two years ago. 1t is quite true that
the cattlemen i'll some parts of the
Northwest and Southwest have found
that they made a mistake by over
crowding their ranges with stock, and
are trying to thin out their herds by
shipping the worst of their cattle to
market; but the shipments of the
miniature beef cattle are due more to
the pressure of the stockmen's credit
ors upon them. They have been get
ting into debt ever since 1884, when
Iio Soltio oosihcoS oPpcdiCu W every
body to be the best speculative in
vestment that could be found for
loose money. Two years before that
Texas cattle had sold in the stock
yards for s75 head, and for three
years then the cattlemen all thought
they were going to be millionares.
FALL OF THE CATTLE KINGS.
These were the days Of the cattle
kings and of vast wealth in cattle,
when the stock grower counted his
assets on paper. He had SO many
thousand head of cattle on his ranch,
worth $50 and more per head. He
mortgaged his cattle for their full
value and bought more cattle to put
on his ranges. Then came a success
sion Of heavy blows to the stockmen,
and those in Texas suffered most.
The cattle began to die on the over
crowded ranges because of bad water,
scarcity of feed and extreme warm
weather. Texas passed law to com,
Il. Al